First Look at Mafia III. Our impression: It's GTA: New Orleans

GTA – three letters that have made millions of players around the world squee over the last two decades. The same three letters have made several major publishers green with envy because their chances to roll out an AAA brand that could match its fame were, most likely, promptly extinguished. The first Mafia debuted when Rockstar’s franchise was barely taking off, leaving place for the Czech Illusion Softworks’ gangster story to gain a foothold on the market and secure a significant fanbase. However, there’s more to the game’s success than simply good timing. Mafia and Grand Theft Auto may have shared many features but the former had something, the latter could never get. Mafia’s gameplay was plot-focused, offered unconventional solutions, like driving according to the traffic regulations, and had a plot structure more similar to that of an old school point & click adventure game rather than a modern sandbox, albeit it has consequently been hailed as one.

Although the previous games from the series managed to, more (Mafia) or less (Mafia II), avoid being compared to GTA, this time around any comparisons are meaningless – Mafia III is an outright clone of the Rockstar’s cherished title, to the point that it could successfully pose as a spin-off. During my nearly 30-minute long encounter with Hangar 13 studios’ first-born, I often found myself wondering if I’m playing a heavily modded copy of GTA V. The open world is full of ever-present markers tempting the player to stray from his path to do a little side job. We have custom markers to help guide the players to their next mission. We have cars getting rammed with tremendous force and then leaving without a single dent on the body. We have pedestrians busy with their own little lives (kissing couples, junkies, buskers) and not just cruising between point A and point B. Geez, even the minimap is a GTA V rip-off. That characteristic rectangle with three bars leaves no trace of doubt that the Scots may have borrowed more from Rockstar North than just good ideas.

As you may already know, the game’s lead character is Lincoln Clay – Vietnam War veteran who set his foot in organized crime upon returning from war. Our protagonist uses every opportunity to lay stress on how he values those he thinks are his family, and we believe him as it becomes clear that he never had anything resembling a true family in his life. Having grown up in an orphanage, to his fellow countrymen he was just a black, good for nothing second class citizen. This changes when he joins a group of crooks with similar background; not because he wants to hit it big, but because his new companions and their boss treat him like a human being, a brother and a son. As you would expect, the good times are soon over when his gang is betrayed by Italian mob and promptly wiped out. Clay survives and vows revenge launching the spiral of violence once again.

The conclusion of Mafia II raised some controversy with the way it left many things unsaid. The appearance of Vito Scarletta in Mafia III may promise revealing what happened to him in the 17 years that followed the ending of Mafia II.

Lincoln is not alone in his endeavor. As the plot progresses, he can convince three important allies to join his fight: Cassandra, Burke and Vito Scarletta (that’s right, our old pal from the second installment) can become his trusted lieutenants, granting you with special abilities and offering remarks concerning your actions. While we’re at it, I need to clarify one thing: Mafia III has only one playable protagonist. You never know what surprises the developers may have up their sleeve, but for know their stance is clear – Clay is the only playable character.

The game is set in New Orleans and, as a quick glance on the map will tell us, stays there. No countryside roaming like in GTA V. Take note, this is the first Mafia game set in an existing city. The developers made sure that the biggest urban area in Louisiana is reproduced to look the part.

During the presentation, the representatives of Hangar 13 studios assured that the narrative was, and will be, the game’s most important element. Seeing how the game shows a completely new approach to storytelling mechanics, I have my doubts. Mafia III will, obviously, encompass a main story line assembled in a set of missions but this doesn’t mean we’ll be going straight to the finale. Actually, the minimap markers we’ve seen will make sure we don’t. We don’t know their exact meaning nor what kind of options do they offer, but it takes no Sherlock Holmes to realize that those little icons will bury us under a mountain of side activities and secondary missions. Let’s make an example of the enemy outpost recapture mechanics we’ve seen in the course of the presentation. Clay can singlehandedly infiltrate an enemy base (in various ways, given he has previously discovered them), assassinate its leader and then take control of the neighborhood. I believe all of us are familiar with this system, courtesy of Ubisoft, but the procedure may be harder than it looks on paper. If gunfire is heard inside the building, every thug in the outpost will try to save his boss’ life and making your life that much harder to preserve.

When we take control of a district the game will let us pick a bonus, dedicated to one of our lieutenants. As each reward grants you with unique benefits, it may be wise to consider your options for a moment and choose the one that accordingly fits your style. We’ve seen how some of them work during a scene when Lincoln tried to escape the police chasing him. Instead of a bold attempt to leave the alerted zone (this closely resembles the mechanics we’ve seen at work in GTA IV) the protagonist pulled over and headed for the nearest phone booth. Then he called some of his friends and asked them to take care of Five-Os. And they did. Thanks to the “divine” intervention, after a short while the police suddenly lost all interest in him and he could stop checking his back in the rear mirror.

Ah, yes… the rear mirror. That’s an interesting addition that is bound to divide the community, you can bet your money on that. When driving a car you are given a mirror on the upper part of the screen that allows you to take a look at the situation behind you. The idea seems good, since you don’t have to change the camera view, but the mirror ends up taking a substantial portion of your front view and makes the driving somewhat difficult. Maybe you just need to get used to it, but I find it irritating to focus on different sections of the screen time after time. One more feature that was unaccounted for in Mafia II was the option to shoot while driving. This helps during car chases since there’s a counterattack awaiting us after every district we conquer and eliminating enemy cars comes easier when you can shower them in bullets while driving at high speed.

The combat in the new Mafia is a combination of every single most influential solution we’ve seen in modern action games released to date. “Sticky” cover system with shooting from behind cover? Check. Dynamic movement when changing cover under fire? Check. Brutal finishers you can execute in close combat or when sneaking up on an unaware opponent? Check. Sneaking? Also check. Now you just have to add some tools to hurt your fellow human, including: handguns, SMGs, shotguns and grenade launchers, among others, and there we have it. Now you’re ready to strike down upon your enemies with great vengeance when you assume the role of Frank… Lincoln! I mean Lincoln, of course. The vengeance will be swift, it will be painful and, as you can see on the screenshots, it will certainly look delicious as far as the game’s impressive visuals go.

I like the new look of Mafia III, although it’s a different game than the one I fell in love with back in 2002. It has lost that subtle, carefully tailored storytelling focused around the ups and downs in a sympathetic gangster’s life. Instead, we get taken on a rollercoaster ride in a thoroughbred sandbox where the decision what to play with rests with us. Where Mafia II barely brushed against the sandbox mechanics, as if its creators were afraid to open the door and embrace it, Mafia III has no door left to open. The developers have kicked it off the hinges when they entered the place. If the gamescom presentation was aimed at convincing me that further comparisons between Mafia and GTA franchises are pointless, it succeeded flawlessly. And you know what? I can live with that.